Terrains in Terraform4D are built from Operator Objects that are stacked on top of each other, just like layers in an image processing application.
Operators can be generators or filters. While generators add features to your terrain, filters alter it. Combine that with sophisticated masking and a multitude of modes to blend operators together, and you have a mighty powerful terrain generator.
More info about operator objects…
Generators
Generators add new content to your terrain. They are responsible for creating mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, and whatnot.
More info about the available generators…
Noise Generator
Explore the infinite noise space to create to create complex random terrains!
Shader Generator
Use Cinema 4D shaders and bitmaps to shape your terrain!
Spline Generator
Use any spline to forge them into mountains or rivers!
Gradient Generator
Utilise different types of gradients to create mountains, walls, and other things, and place them where you want them.
Group Generator
Group operators together, making them reusable.
Filters
Filters alter your terrain.
More info about the available filters…
Curve Filter
Use a simple spline curve to shape your terrain! Glaciate or canyonise your terrain, create plateaus, terraces and dunes.
Fold Filter
Folds height field values around a top or bottom value, turning summits into craters, or valleys into hills.
Blur Filter
Apply high quality low pass filtering to your terrain.
Sharpen Filter
Tease out extra detail with different sharpen convolution filters.
Clamp Filter
Constrain a terrain to a defined altitude range by scaling or clipping it.
Mirror Filter
Mirror terrains along X and Z, or invert the altitude profile.
Adjustment Filter
Scale and offset your terrain's altitude profile.
Blend modes
Just like in an image processing application, operators are merged with their predecessor using a multitude of blend modes.
More info about the blend modes…
Normal
This blend mode simply replaces one height field with another.
Add
Adds an operator to another.
Subtract
Subtracts an operator from another.
Difference
Computes the absolute difference between two height fields.
Multiply
Multiplies an operator with another one.
Lowest
Selects the lowest areas of each operator.
Highest
Selects the highest areas of each operator.
Phoenix low
Selects the lowest areas of both operators, preserving the underlying structure.
Phoenix high
Selects the highest areas of both operators, preserving the underlying structure.
Overlay
This blend mode is a combination of Screen blending and Multiply. It combines two height fields in an interesting way, preservig lots of detail from both operators
Screen
This blend mode is a bit similar to Add. The resulting height field is always higher than the input height fields. However, it has a different look than Add: Higher areas of the second operator are moer present.
Negation
This blend mode mirrors one height field on the other. As a result, you get crater landscapes that resemble the ones from the Fold Operator.
Soft Light
Soft Light is pretty much like Overlay. It lowers low areas, and heightens high areas, but in a more subtle way. You can think of Soft Light as a more gentle version of Overlay without the harsh contrast.
Hard Light
Hard Light combines the Multiply and Screen blend modes using the altitude values of the second operator to make its calculations. High and low areas of the second oprator are more present.
Masking
Operators can be constrained using Terraform4D’s masking features:
Fields
Harvest the powers of Fields to constrain operators to just the areas where you want them.
Topological Masking: Altitude
Constrain operators to only appear in certain altitude levels.
Topological Masking: Slope
Constrain operators to appear based on slope steepness.
Terrain Options
Curved Terrain
The Curved Terrain option projects the terrain on a spheroid with variable radius, giving the impression of a planetary surface.
Solid Terrain
The Solid Terrain option creates a solid base around the terrain, as if it had been sliced from a larger landscape. The UV coordinates of the base geometry make it easy to apply sedimental texturing.
Evaluation & Caching
Terraform4D uses a sophisticated evaluation and caching system. Only the operators that have changed will be rebuilt, and changes in dependencies and animation are recognised. That keeps terrain build times at a minimum.